The Annenberg Institute will host Macy Brammer for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on the relationship between teaching, parenting, and caregiving. The talk will explore research examining how teachers’ professional roles intersect with family responsibilities and broader questions about work, gender, and inequality.
Sharma will discuss Zearn’s new, national study -- Catching Up and Moving Forward: Accelerating Math Learning for Every Student -- that shows learning acceleration works at scale. The research, which was recently highlighted in U.S. News & World Report, looked at how 600,000 individual elementary- and middle-school students across all 50 states responded to 5 million instances of learning acceleration and remediation over the past two academic years. This learning acceleration research is relevant for math instruction during school day, in extended time, and tutoring contexts.
Shalinee Sharma is a math expert and is the CEO and co-founder of Zearn, a nonprofit educational organization behind the top-rated math learning platform used by 1 in 4 elementary-school and 1 million middle-school students nationwide. In addition to her role at Zearn, she authored the national bestseller, "Math Mind: The Simple Path to Loving Math.” Sharma also serves on the Braven Board of Directors, is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and serves as co-chair of the Brown University Advisory Council for the College.
Before co-founding Zearn in 2012, Sharma spent more than a decade at Bain & Co. leading work for clients in various sectors including technology and education. She has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. As a mom of twins, Sharma is passionate about universal access to an excellent education.
We’re excited to host Elizabeth Huffaker for the upcoming Annenberg Seminar on Educational Policy. She is a Research Fellow at the National Student Support Accelerator.
She holds a PhD in Education Policy and the Economics of Education from Stanford University and uses quantitative methods to study causal questions of K-12 policy and practice. Her recent work explores how secondary math reforms influence high school students’ educational opportunities, engagement, and achievement. Elizabeth will be joining the faculty of the University of Florida College of Education this fall as an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy. Before her research career, she taught high school math in Texas.
The Annenberg Institute will host Jacques P. Lesure for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on evaluation, racial uplift, and the social imaginary. The talk will explore research examining how frameworks for evaluating progress and social change shape understandings of race, equity, and educational opportunity.
The Annenberg Institute will host Susan Moffitt for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on access to public school board meetings. The talk will explore how public meeting spaces function as venues for democratic participation and examine how differences in access and engagement may shape community involvement in education governance.
The Annenberg Institute is excited to host Dr. Daphne C. Watkins for the upcoming Annenberg Research Seminar on Race and Education. She is the Letha A. Chadiha Collegiate Professor of Social Work, University Diversity, and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Daphne C. Watkins has dedicated twenty years to studying Black men’s health, working to break down stereotypes and systemic barriers that limit their access to healthcare and health education. Her research focuses on helping Black men and boys obtain equitable resources and services across educational, community, and healthcare settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Watkins gained new insights about leadership and organizational management, recognizing the need to expand her impact beyond individual interventions. Drawing from her extensive experience in improving Black men’s mental health and collaborating with community leaders, she broadened her focus to include leadership development and organizational management. Today, Dr. Watkins empowers leaders across industries to create meaningful organizational change. Through mentorship and guidance, she works to transform systems and institutions to better serve underrepresented leaders and their communities.
The Annenberg Institute will host Camilla Adams for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on K–12 education and intergenerational mobility. The talk will explore empirical research examining the relationship between education and long-term mobility, using evidence from Denmark to consider how educational systems shape opportunities across generations.
The Annenberg Institute will host Jesse Bruhn for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on the long-term effects of early career occupational experiences. The talk will explore how early positions and career pathways shape later labor market outcomes, examining questions of occupational mobility, persistence, and the factors that influence economic trajectories over time.
The Annenberg Institute will host Jesse Bruhn for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on teacher and school value-added. The talk will explore empirical research examining how teacher effectiveness and school-level factors contribute to student outcomes, and will consider approaches for understanding the distinct roles of educators and educational institutions.
Jose Eos Trinidad is Assistant Professor of Education Policy at the University of California Berkeley. He is a sociologist focused on the study of organizations outside schools and the study of schools as organizations. He received his Joint PhD in Sociology and Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago.
Research
Bringing together the sociologies of organizations and education, his research interrogates education policy, civil society, and institutional change. He is author of Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education(link is external) (Oxford, 2025) and of more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis; Educational Researcher; Socius; Sociology of Education; Sociology Compass; and Social Science & Medicine
His research primarily investigates the interaction between schools and “outside” research, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations — with consequences for our understanding of public policy implementation, school improvement, and civil society. His current research looks at these cross-sector partnerships (1) in large urban school districts like Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City, (2) with quantitative datasets assembled from US nonprofit tax records, and (3) in new civic organizations in developing countries. To understand policies and politics holistically, he is a multi-method researcher using quantitative causal inference strategies, qualitative interviews, and network analysis.